Emera

“Aruba, Jamaica, ooo I wanna take ya. Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mama …” While most of us trapped in the icy grip of this winter’s Polar Vortex can only dream of cruising from Florida to the Caribbean, “tropical drink melting in your hand,” Nova Scotia-based Emera Inc. has a plan to do just that (minus the drink), and on a regular, ferry-like schedule. Emera wants to export compressed natural gas from the Port of Palm Beach to its Grand Bahama electric utility and other Caribbean buyers starting as soon as 2015. The volumes of natural gas involved aren’t huge, but the plan is an example of market innovation driven by the US shale revolution. Today we examine Emera’s plan to move US gas to “the islands.”